xkcd 1 (As Far As I Can Tell): Wow, That's a Really Cool Baby!

[AvatarVecna]

I don't get it. Random quotes with the character name awkwardly crammed in?

"Time waits for no man Gnome Ann!"

That's the joke, over and over: replacing "no man" with "gnome ann", which sounds similar when spoken.

[Eldan]

*Looks up dictionary*

The "G" in "Gnome" is silent in English? You people are weird. Who has silent Gs in their language?

[AvatarVecna]

*Looks up dictionary*

The "G" in "Gnome" is silent in English? You people are weird. Who has silent Gs in their language?

I will not defend the English Language as anything that makes even a lick of sense, but nevertheless that's how the word is pronounced, and that's the pun being made in this comic.

[factotum]

The "G" in "Gnome" is silent in English? You people are weird. Who has silent Gs in their language?

We have silent letters all over the place! "Island"-no S sound, "knife"--no K sound, "subtle"--no B sound, just to give some examples. And let's not get started on words where the exact same combination of letters produces a different sound, such as "enough", "slough", and "borough". This can even happen inside the same word, such as the town Loughborough, which ought really to be spelt Luffburra.

[eschmenk]

*Looks up dictionary*

The "G" in "Gnome" is silent in English? You people are weird. Who has silent Gs in their language?

Apparently the French do too, since that's how the word entered English. I think Latin did the same. BTW, both g and k can be silent when followed by an n. Even stranger, sometimes the g is silent in one word, but pronounced in a closely related word. For example: resign (silent); resignation (pronounced).

[Peelee]

*Looks up dictionary*

The "G" in "Gnome" is silent in English? You people are weird. Who has silent Gs in their language?

Oh, man, you wouldn't believe what letters we can make silent.

I blame the Brits.

[Grinner]

...such as the town Loughborough, which ought really to be spelt Luffburra.

And then there's the interesting case of Leicester, the pronunciation of which I suspect would even stump native English-speakers, mostly Americans.

[thorgrim29]

Is it Lay-ster? Gnome Ann can understand the weirdness of English

[Grinner]

Is it Lay-ster? Gnome Ann can understand the weirdness of English

I think it's "less-ter", but that's really close. Perhaps it's derived from French? (You speak French, right?)

[Lethologica]

I think it's "less-ter", but that's really close. Perhaps it's derived from French? (You speak French, right?)

Less-ter is correct, but EtymOnline thinks it's English most of the way back with some Latin roots, and probably developed its silent, uh, letters because it's a compound word whose verbal contraction outpaced its written contraction.

Gnome Ann doesn't look gnome-sized, though. I call shenanigans.

[tonberrian]

That's because Gnome Ann is an island.

[Knaight]

*Looks up dictionary*

The "G" in "Gnome" is silent in English? You people are weird. Who has silent Gs in their language?

Let me put it this way - see my user name? English pronunciation rules say that it's pronounced the same way as "Nate". There's also a good 30 viable alternate spellings that work out to the same pronunciation, and while the n and long a sounds are particularly susceptible to replacement, there are alternatives for most words. English pronunciation is bizarre.

[Peelee]

LogicAlly
SuBtle*
SCent
HanDkerchief
BellE
HalFpenny*
SiGn
Hour
FrIend
MariJuana
Knife
TaLk
Mnemonic
DamN
ColOnel**
CorPs*
LacQuer*
SaRsaparilla*
ISland
CasTle
GUard
TWo
FauX
RendeZvous*

Couldn't think of a V or Y, and J was a stretch, but for a bonus I did get a dipthong:
YaCHt

*Multiple silent letters
**The OL are also silent, and replaced by an ER sound.

English!

[Eldan]

I know that English is totally weird. I mean, I speak it. I was familiar with all the other examples on the page here. I just had no idea the G in Gnome was silent.

This is Psycho all over again.

[factotum]

LogicAlly
HalFpenny*

Those examples only count if your specific accent changes the way the word is pronounced--I would certainly pronounce the highlighted letters in both words. In the case of "halfpenny" I assume you mean the usual contraction "ha'penny", but that's just an abbreviation, not the actual word.

[Eldan]

Couldn't think of a V or Y, and J was a stretch, but for a bonus I did get a dipthong:
YaCHt

*Multiple silent letters
**The OL are also silent, and replaced by an ER sound.

English!

Hmm. Depending a bit on accent, but... Mayor or Prayer, for silent Y? Can't think of a V, either.

[Rodin]

And then there's the interesting case of Leicester, the pronunciation of which I suspect would even stump native English-speakers, mostly Americans.

One of my enduring sources of amusement for the past few months has been American news-readers stumbling over the pronunciation as they try to report on Leicester's Premier League win.

Hmm. Depending a bit on accent, but... Mayor or Prayer, for silent Y? Can't think of a V, either.

Mayor is regional to be sure - I pronounce it May-err, but I've definitely heard it pronounced Mare.

Prayer is a good one though, since that gets pronounced Prare most of the time.

[gbs5009]

Yeah, the J is a stretch. It's really a jota, which is kind of an h sound, as Jorge, or Javier. I guess since Americans frequently say mara-wanna, not mara-hwana, it's still silent?

[gbs5009]

And of course, now that I look at some articles of the etymology here, it would appear that the jota was added AFTER the word entered English. It would appear that it was adde for the express purpose of ignoring it, but it got pushed back into Mexican Spanish through cultural osmosis.

Language is weird.

[Peelee]

Those examples only count if your specific accent changes the way the word is pronounced--I would certainly pronounce the highlighted letters in both words.

I dunno how the Brits pronounce it, but horrible Americans let the second A be silent in "caramel." Basically the same, though. Heh. Basically

[Yuki Akuma]

I dunno how the Brits pronounce it, but horrible Americans let the second A be silent in "caramel." Basically the same, though. Heh. Basically

We pronounce all of the vowels in caramel.

[Peelee]

We pronounce all of the vowels in caramel.

The "horrible" was a subset in addition to a descriptor

.....also, i am guessing you're American and not British? Didn't even notice that until just now.

[Kato]

Ah, it's good to be German... where pronunciation and writing have clear rules... as long as it's not a word we stole from others. Which is getting more and more, especially from English. And then we start butchering the pronunciation until it follows our rules. Well, most of the time... Good thing we exchanged all our handies (mobile phones) for smart phones. Too bad we tried to get rid of the "ph=f" a few years ago and now it's coming back. Oh well...

[The Glyphstone]

German, the language of ten thousand compound words?

[Eldan]

German, the language of ten thousand compound words?

Sure, so? They are still straightforward to pronounce and the meaning is in 90%+ of cases perfectly obvious from the words it's made up from. What's a tree that grows apples? An apple tree. In German, we just leave out the space.

[Yuki Akuma]

The "horrible" was a subset in addition to a descriptor

.....also, i am guessing you're American and not British? Didn't even notice that until just now.

No. I'm from Angle-land.

[The Glyphstone]

Sure, so? They are still straightforward to pronounce and the meaning is in 90%+ of cases perfectly obvious from the words it's made up from. What's a tree that grows apples? An apple tree. In German, we just leave out the space.

Just saying you don't need to steal words from anyone to begin with, all the building blocks already exist to construct any word you could possibly need.

[Peelee]

No. I'm from Angle-land.

I'd somehow always read that as "angel," not "angle." Sorry for being obtuse. I was not very acute, and I'll right it immediately.

[Eldan]

Just saying you don't need to steal words from anyone to begin with, all the building blocks already exist to construct any word you could possibly need.

True, but English is hip and cool, so it is used.

[The Glyphstone]

True, but English is hip and cool, so it is used.

But...like, a third of English is stolen from German to begin with!